Granada Pioneer, Vol III, No. 60

              Page 4
..». PIONEER
_T
H »*so
5y /to/ Yoshida
MEMORIAL DAI
|v/lEMORIAL DAY, 1945, ear-
^ilries a meaningful significance.
Today is the first Memorial Day in n/hich we,
American's of Japanese ancestry, can really claim an
equal share with Americans
of other ancestries in revering the memory of our
country's war dead. And it
is to their lasting credit
and to ouz* treasured heritage that each and every
one of them entered Valhalla
a hero.
Today is a good day for
us to take inventory and
see what we at home have
done to deserve this heritage. It isn't a-pleas-
ant picture.
While Nisei GI's were
fighting across the sea,we
in. relocation centers have
watched the months and the
years pass by--without adding much on the credit side
of the ledger. We've become
arrogant, If not crude, in
our manners, We've changed,
if not lost, our sense of
values. We've learned little, if nothing, on how to
get along With people.
And we've done practi-
c ally no tiling t owar d s making
our future brighter. 'Worst
of all, we've failed to
prepare ourselves to properly gace the outside life
— vastly different from
what ours have been for
nearly three years*--which
we must eventually meet.
Through that failure some
of us may make evacuee rehabilitation more difficult.
So much for us in centers.
JUST CLOSE YOUR EYES and
take yourself to a West
Coast, state-house,  A legislator at a committee
meeting discussing an anti-
Japanese legislation is
vo c ally bac king the mea s ur e
with His ao.iti-Japanese tirade* Wh en he g et s thr ough,
he is confronted by a nisei
veteran recently recently
from action in. the European
t h e a t o r . This Japanese
American GI  stands up.to
say with, intense feeling:
I went overseas to fight
•this  sort of fascism and
here'I. come Home and find
.you preaching it.    -
; ....      May 30, 194-5
Published Wednesdays a nd Saturdays by the WRA
and, . distributed free to each, apartment. Editorial
office: PIONEER build ing,, Amache, Colo. Telephone 63.
Acting Reports Officer:.Meivin P. MoGovern
• Ed i t or: Roy Yo s hi da
Staff: Tom Mayahara, Ren Miyahara, Audrey HakaHe,
Florence Okida, Julia Shimosaka, Allan Asakawa, Mits
Ikeda, John Ito, Asano Ha sax, Sharky Zib.ara.
,.. Japanese section ...... Editor: Ichiro Konno
Staffs Yutaka Kubota, Iloji.ro Hamakai/a, Takahik o
Hawamura.
^:;
-..*.,
jA
9
TO THE EDITOR
Editor
The'Auburn Journal
Auburn, Calif.
Dear Sir:
The recent decision af
your local court acquitting
confessed arsonists appeal's
to us to be almost fantas-
World War was occasioned
by certain minority groups
in other parts of the world
allowing their personal
and prejudiced feelings to
Ho vented on other less
fortunate groups. It has
also been our belief that
one of the prime reasons
for our engaging in the
war was to prevent the
spread of such social conditions which make smiliar
tic;  Editorials in most actions oossible.
of the newspapers lead one
to believe that the facts
we h ave f o und s o * aab e 1 i e v-
able. are subs tantially
c orrect. We find it ex-
ceedingly hard to believe
that any group of Americans
would be.capable of such
miscarriage of jus bice.
It has  boon our firm.
belief
nan
die ore sent
Thus, this legislator Is
justly castigated. He is
put in his place.
But what of us also at
home who unknowingly .and
p erhan s unth inkingly b ut
passively assist these fascist-like forces by not
even lifting .a finger in
p r ot est. Our inactlco n
against such practices at-
home is second only to
preaching it*' We -shall
fail in cur duty as good
citizens, and it will certainly be to our oxen detriment, if v-ve do riot take
means to "correct" this
attack- on domoc ractic prin-
cip'les.
And, in addition, we
shall live to see history
repeat itself—that of our
nisei Heroes, like the
American 'doughboys of World
liar I, having died in. vain
to keep- democracy at its
proper level.
Lest 'we fall heir to
such misfortune, let us
pledge to make this Memorial Day a starting point to
keep alive the heritage
loft us by the Yamanotos,
S a i t o s, Nakamur as, and
score 'of others.
As private citizens who,
to some extent, take their
social obligations seriously we wish to protest
as vigorously as possible
the decision of your court
o f a c rime ag a in st a fellow
American who happens to be
of Japanese descent. As a
matter of simple justice
the question of Mr. Hoi's
ancestry should not enter
the picture.
Sincerely,
Mr. and Mrs. Cloyd Gray
369 Churchill Avenue
Palo Alto, Calif,
TO THE MODESTO BEE:
Editor—Sir: After reading some of the letters In
The Bee against the American Japanese, I often wonder if these people know
we also are fighting a war
in Europe against an enemy
who has been ever so brutal.
Than enemy did not stop
with . a few hundred, but
slaughtered millions. As
a s e r v i c eman!s wife, wh o s o
husband has been across
nearly three years and who
knows something about those
German atrocities, I say,
"Why not send all American
Germans b a c k to Germany
after the war?" These people will have to be reed uc a bod, and s inc e- so many
Anionic an Germans speak German so well, why not give
them the job? While we
are at it, we might as well
sond the Italians back,
too.
A SERVICEMAN'S_ WIFE.
Modesto